DOCSLIB.ORG

An Introduction to Mary Steele, the Author of Danebury and the Power of Friendship, a Tale with Two Odes by a Young Lady

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Introduction to Mary Steele, the Author of Danebury and the Power of Friendship, a Tale with Two Odes by a Young Lady Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Spring 2008 Resurrecting the Anonymous: An Introduction To Mary Steele, the Author of Danebury and The Power of Friendship, A Tale with Two Odes by a Young Lady Amanda J. Holmes Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd Recommended Citation Holmes, Amanda J., "Resurrecting the Anonymous: An Introduction To Mary Steele, the Author of Danebury and The Power of Friendship, A Tale with Two Odes by a Young Lady" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 174. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/174 This thesis (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RESURRECTING THE ANONYMOUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO MARY STEELE, THE AUTHOR OF DANEBURY AND THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, A TALE WITH TWO ODES BY A “YOUNG LADY” by AMANDA HOLMES (Under the Direction of Timothy Whelan) ABSTRACT Published anonymously in 1779 Danebury, or the Power of Friendship, a Tale with Two Odes, has retained its anonymity for over two centuries. Evidence found in the Reeves and Steele Collections housed at Angus Library; Regent’s Park College, Oxford identifies the author as Mary Steele, a provincial young woman with a Nonconformist background who was an active participant in a literary coterie that included other published authors such as Mary Scott, Anne Steele, and Hannah More. Drawing upon the work of Marjorie Reeves as well as the original manuscripts contained in the Reeves and Steele collections, this thesis provides the first in depth discussion of Mary Steele’s published work and the role her literary circle of friends and acquaintances and her Nonconformist background played in shaping her poetry. INDEX WORDS: 18th-century poetry, 18th-century women, Nonconformity, Friendship poetry, Retirement poetry, Poetry about the American Revolution, 18th-century manuscripts and letters, Danebury Hill, Mary Steele, Anne Steele, Mary Scott, Reeves Collection, Steele Collection, Literary circles 1 RESURRECTING THE ANONYMOUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO MARY STEELE, THE AUTHOR OF DANEBURY AND THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, A TALE WITH TWO ODES BY A “YOUNG LADY” by AMANDA HOLMES B.A. University of Alabama, 2001 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ART STATESBORO, GEORGIA 2008 2 © 2008 Amanda Holmes All Rights Reserved 3 RESURRECTING THE ANONYMOUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO MARY STEELE, THE AUTHOR OF DANEBURY AND THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, A TALE WITH TWO ODES BY A “YOUNG LADY” by AMANDA HOLMES Major Professor: Tim Whelan Committee: Julia Griffin Candy Schille Electronic Version Approved: May 2008 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the librarians and archivists of Angus Library at Regent’s Park College, Oxford for their assistance with the Steele and Reeves Collections. Also, I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Timothy Whelan for the opportunity to work on this project and for directing the production of this thesis. Last, but certainly not least, my sincere appreciation to the faculty and staff of the Department of Literature and Philosophy, especially Dr. Julia Griffin, Dr. Candy Schille, and Dr. Doug Thomson for their thoughtful guidance and encouragement. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................5 LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................7 A NOTE ON THE USE OF MANUSCRIPTS IN THE THESIS .......................................8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................9 2 MARY STEELE AND HER LITERARY COTERIE ....................................18 3 DANEBURY, OR THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP: MARY STEELE AND THE LEGACY OF THE FRIENDSHIP POEM ........................................42 4 MARY STEELE’S “SPRING, AN ODE” AND THE TRADITION OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RETIREMENT POETRY ............................64 5 “LIBERTY, AN ODE” AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.................76 6 CONCLUSION................................................................................................87 NOTES...............................................................................................................................89 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................95 6 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Map of English Countryside: places mentioned in the correspondence (Reeves Pursuing, vii) ....................................................................................................19 7 A NOTE ON THE USE OF MANUSCRIPTS IN THE THESIS In my thesis, I have used portions of transcriptions from poems and letters taken from the Steele Collection and the Reeves Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. In these transcriptions, I have tried to adhere as closely as possible to the original manuscripts. Archaic and unusual spellings, variations in spellings of the same word or name, and typical eighteenth-century capitalization of nouns have not been changed. Occasionally, the “e” in words that end in “ed” has been left out; in some cases, the deletion is noted with an apostrophe, but in several instances the letters have simply been joined together. In what was a common eighteenth-century practice, on occasions a “y” is used in place of “th” and generally accompanied by a superscript letter that completes the word (for example, “ye” for “the”). It should also be noted that many sentences in the letters have no closing punctuation, and normal punctuation patterns are often missing altogether in these letters and poems. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Silently entombed in family archives, tucked away in attics, anonymously encased in age-old bindings, and waiting patiently under a century or more of dust, are the still silent voices of an all but forgotten literary past, a past which scholars and historians have made great strides in unearthing over the last several decades, but one that nevertheless has yet to be fully resurrected. A piece of this past has recently been uncovered at Oxford. The Steele Collection was acquired by Regent’s Park College’s Angus Library after the death of Hugh Steele-Smith. Dr. Marjorie Reeves outlines much of the collection and its significance to English Nonconformist culture in her book Pursuing the Muses: Female Education and Nonconformist Culture 1700-1900, 1997. This collection of archival material is particularly valuable in reconstructing the distinct literary and cultural history of the late eighteenth century because the manuscripts are primarily written by Nonconformist women—one of whom was known (Anne Steele) and one unknown (Mary Steele), though both were published authors. It is the last of the two authors whose obscure publication this thesis attempts to acknowledge and examine at length. Isobel Grundy makes an eloquent argument for the rediscovery of such early female literary contributions and their value in reconstructing and re-engendering a literary past that has long deserved to be brought to light: If as students we wish to know, and if as teachers we wish to know something about the workings of gendering society, then we need those 9 early women’s voices. They alone can teach us something of how it felt to live as a woman in a culture (so different from our own, yet sharing so much with it) in which the inferiority and subordination of women was utterly taken for granted. They can teach us something important, too about the impulse to literature, the sources of the poems, stories and so on—something of how to read the work of those who broke into literature from the outside, who in taking up the pen were claiming a privilege which in general was denied to them. (185) Any reconstruction of the eighteenth century literary canon ought to reflect a more concerted effort to rediscover the still forgotten voices of the age, generations of women who took up the pen and wrote in spite of the social and educational constraints that might have impeded them. Networks of literary friends have thus far played an important role in modern efforts to reconstruct the British literary canon to reflect more accurately the female poetic of eighteenth-century Britain. Collections of letters and manuscripts that pass among the members of such social networks have allowed scholars like Isobel Grundy to glimpse a literary past that has been too long forgotten. Through her work with the Steele and Reeves Collections, Marjorie Reeves uncovered a hitherto unknown group of acquaintances who enjoyed an active and rich correspondence while pursuing their literary aspirations. The literary development and friendships of these women can be traced through manuscripts and personal correspondence that passed between its members, most particularly Mary Steele, whose letters and poetry form an integral part of this collection and whose obscure publication is the focus of the chapters to come. Marjorie Reeves argues that this particular
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Anna Seward and the Poetics of Sensibility and Control Andrew O
    Criticism Volume 58 | Issue 2 Article 9 2016 Anna Seward and the Poetics of Sensibility and Control Andrew O. Winckles Adrian College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism Recommended Citation Winckles, Andrew O. (2016) "Anna Seward and the Poetics of Sensibility and Control," Criticism: Vol. 58 : Iss. 2 , Article 9. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism/vol58/iss2/9 ANNA SEWARD At the 2011 meeting of the North American Society for the Study AND THE POETICS of Romanticism, Anne K. Mellor OF SENSIBILITY reflected on how the field has AND CONTROL changed since her foundational Andrew O. Winckles 1993 study Romanticism and Gender. She commented that, though women writers such as Anna Seward and the End of the Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Eighteenth Century by Claudia and Mary Shelley have cemented Thomas Kairoff. Baltimore, MD: themselves as legitimate objects Johns Hopkins University Press, of study, this has largely been at 2012. Pp. 328. $58 cloth. the expense of a broader under- standing of how women writers were working during the period. In addition to the Big Six male Romantics, we have in many cases simply added the Big Three female Romantics.1 Though this has begun to change in the last ten years, with important studies appearing about women like Anna Letitia Barbauld, Mary Robinson, Joanna Baillie, and Hannah More, we still know shockingly little about women writers’ lives, cultural con- texts, and works. A case in point is Anna Seward, a poet and critic well known and respected in her own lifetime, but whose critical neglect in the nineteenth and twentieth centu- ries has largely shaped how recent critics interact with her work.
    [Show full text]
  • Erasmus Darwin
    ERASMUS DARWIN “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Erasmus Darwin HDT WHAT? INDEX ERASMUS DARWIN ERASMUS DARWIN 1619 In London, William Harvey confirmed the fact of circulation of the blood. What remained to be figured out was the mechanism by which this was occurring — as we didn’t as yet know of the network of capillaries inside the tissue by which the circuit is completed. Between this year and 1628 he would be constructing his theory of circulation. THE SCIENCE OF 1619 HDT WHAT? INDEX ERASMUS DARWIN ERASMUS DARWIN 1621 The botanist John Tradescant joins the service of the Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers. At Oxford, founding of the 1st botanic garden in Britain, by Lord Henry Danvers, the Earl of Danby, 76 years after the founding of the 1st continental garden. This was probably inspired by John Tradescant’s garden of exotic plants in South Lambeth. THE SCIENCE OF 1621 HDT WHAT? INDEX ERASMUS DARWIN ERASMUS DARWIN 1690 Denis Papin published his first work on the steam engine, DE NOVIS QUIBUSDAM MACHINIS. The function of his steam engine was to raise water into a canal between Kassel and Karlshaven. He also used a steam engine to pump water to a tank on the palace roof, that supplied water for the fountains in the gardens. THE SCIENCE OF 1690 HDT WHAT? INDEX ERASMUS DARWIN ERASMUS DARWIN 1698 Thomas Savery’s “fire engine,” the first working steam engine, amounted to a pump operated by steam power which had no moving parts.
    [Show full text]
  • Interpreting Epidemic Disease at Eyam, 1666-2000
    Working Papers on The Nature of Evidence: How Well Do ‘Facts’ Travel? No. 02/05 A Dreadful Heritage: Interpreting Epidemic Disease at Eyam, 1666-2000 Patrick Wallis © Patrick Wallis Department of Economic History London School of Economics May 2005 “The Nature of Evidence: How Well Do ‘Facts’ Travel?” is funded by The Leverhulme Trust and the ESRC at the Department of Economic History, London School of Economics. For further details about this project and additional copies of this, and other papers in the series, go to: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collection/economichistory/ Series Editor: Dr. Jonathan Adams Department of Economic History London School of Economics Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 6727 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7955 7730 A Dreadful Heritage: Interpreting Epidemic Disease at Eyam, 1666-2000.1 Patrick Wallis Suffering has sanctified its claim to notice, and the curious and enquiring traveller feels a melancholy pleasure in tracing out the records of the ravages made in this little village by that depopulating scourge of nations2 Abstract Eyam is an epicentre of Europe’s plague heritage. Every year, tens of thousands of people visit the Derbyshire village, drawn by stories of its catastrophic plague and the heroic response it elicited. The story they are told - of a self-imposed quarantine preventing disease spreading to the surrounding area - is an exemplary narrative of a selfless community under strong, positive leadership. But although the plague of Eyam in 1666 is one of the most famous outbreaks of epidemic disease in British history, the narrative is largely a fiction; produced not by doctors, but by poets, writers, and local historians.
    [Show full text]
  • The Shepherdess's Tomb
    James Stevens Curl, ‘The Tomb in the Garden: A Few Observations on “The Shepherdess’s Tomb” at Shugborough, Staffordshire’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XXIV, 2016, pp. 53–64 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2016 THE TOMB IN THE GARDEN: A FEW OBSERVatiONS ON ‘The ShePHERDESS’S TOMb’ at SHUGBOROUGH StaffORDSHIRE JAMES STEVENS CURL he presence of the Mausoleum, Tomb, tomb: the shadow of one of the shepherds cast on TCenotaph, or Memorial in the landscape the monument alludes to the Spirit, or Classical garden has been the subject of numerous studies, Manes, and the inscription was interpreted to mean far too many to be listed here. Nicolas Poussin either ‘and I was once an inhabitant of Arcady’ or (1594–1665), in the second version of his painting that, even there, in Arcadia, ‘I’ (meaning Death) on the et in Arcadia ego theme (c.1635–6), depicted was ever-present (though there have been other shepherds in an Arcadian landscape studying the explanations as well, some turgid, some reasonable, inscription on a simple, rather severe Classical and some not). Standing to the right is a female Fig. 1. Nicolas Poussin’s second version of the Et in Arcadia Ego theme, known as ‘Arcadian Shepherds’ (reproduced from James Stevens Curl, Freemasonry & the Enlightenment: Architecture, Symbols, & Influences. (London: Historical Publications Ltd., 2011) THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIV THE TOMB IN THE GARDEN : ‘ THE SHEPHERDESS ’ S TOMB ’ AT SHUGBOROUGH Fig. 2. The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens, Fig. 3. The ‘Lanthorn of Demosthenes’ at Shugborough reproduced from James Stuart & Nicholas Revett, (1764–9). (Photograph © James Stevens Curl) The Antiquities of Athens I (London: John Haberkorn, 1762), Ch.
    [Show full text]
  • The Response to Fame of British Women Poets
    Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. 'All that fame bath cost . ' : The Response to Fame of British Women Poets from 1770 to 1835. A dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at Massey University Rachel Anne J ones 1996 ii ABSTRACT The years 1770 to 1835 produced a considerable number of famous women poets . They were famous at a time when there was a conflict between the ideology of the feminine and the implications of being a published woman poet . Looking in particular at the most successful female poets of the period , I trace the various ways in which they perceived and dealt with that conflict in their lives and their poetry . I argue that the women poets of the period were a diverse group and cannot be regarded as homogeneous , and as such they responded to fame differently. They did , however , share some of the same ideological pressures , and I contend that they all found fame more or less burdensome . In my first chapter I establish the socio-historical conditions in which the women poets were working , with particular reference to the position of poetry during the period . In my second chapter I examine the women poets (More, Barbauld, Seward , and Williams) who were directly influenced by the Bluestocking group , looking at their experience of fame and how fame is treated in their poetry .
    [Show full text]
  • Anna Seward (1742-1809) by Marion Roberts
    Anna Seward (1742-1809) by Marion Roberts The eighteenth century was a competitive world, progress being made by the money you had or the notice you attracted; with whom you mixed and to whose gatherings you were invited; how much influence you had and how many connections you made. All these were of much concern. You needed to understand the rules of social rank and have a respect for wealth. Being female in a society which valued female dependency was difficult, but could sometimes be turned to advantage. Women’s lives seemed to be a progress of various milestones: maiden, wife, mother, and, if she was unlucky, widow, dowager and grandmother. At each stage, women were expected to bow to the will of providence and do their duty. For Anna Seward to be mistress of herself was paramount: to be self-possessed, self-controlled and self- sufficient, brave and enduring in the face of misfortune. She turned her back on the institution of marriage, which she blamed for her misfortunes and despite several proposals, resolved to lead a quiet, spinster life. But as Robert Burns would write: ‘The best laid schemes of mice and men/ Gang aft a-gley ’. Anna Seward was born in 1742 in the Plague village of Eyam, in the Derbyshire hills, where her father, the Rev. Thomas Seward, was minister. A redheaded, precocious, sensitive child, she could recite Milton at the age of three. She was greatly attached to her younger sister, Sarah. Sarah died, aged nineteen, from an ‘unspecified fever’ (possibly Miliary Tuberculosis) just before her arranged marriage to Joseph Porter.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: the Nine Living Muses of Great Britain
    Notes Introduction: The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain 1. See, for example Germaine Greer, TheObstacle Race: the Fortunes of Women Painters and their Work (London: Secker and Warburg, 1979); Olwen Hufton, The Prospect Before Her: a History of Women in Western Europe,Vol. I: 1500–1800 (London: Harper Collins, 1995); Janet Todd, The Sign of Angellica, Women, Writing and Fiction, 1660–1800 (London: Virago, 1989); AmandaVickery, The Gentle- man’s Daughter. Women’s Lives in Georgian England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998). 2. Maria Edgeworth, Letters for Literary Ladies, ed.Claire Connolly (London: Every- man, 1993), p.7. 3. TheLadies New and Polite Pocket Memorandum-Bookfor 1778 (London: Joseph Johnson, 1777), pp. iv–v. 4. As Kate Davies has recently argued, ‘part of The Nine Living Muses’ force and function comes from the absorption of women’s singular achievements into the celebratory collective identity with which the imageendows them’. See Kate Davies, Catharine Macaulay and Mercy Otis Warren: the Revolutionary Atlantic and thePolitics of Gender (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 78. See Chapter 2, ‘Out-Cornelia-izing Cornelia: Portraits, Profession and the Gendered Character of Learning’, for a fascinating discussion of Macaulay’s visual iconography. 5. See Angela Rosenthal, Angelica Kauffman: Art and Sensibility (New Haven and London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale University Press, 2006). See also the entry on Kauffman by Wendy Wassyng Roworth in Dictionary of Women Artists, ed.Delia Gaze, 2 vols (London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997),I,pp. 764–70. 6. For the history of the Royal of Academy of Arts, see Holger Hoock, The King’s Artists: theRoyal Academy of Arts and thePolitics of British Culture 1760–1840 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003).
    [Show full text]
  • Anna Seward and the End of the Eighteenth Century Kairoff, Claudia T
    Anna Seward and the End of the Eighteenth Century Kairoff, Claudia T. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Kairoff, Claudia T. Anna Seward and the End of the Eighteenth Century. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.12865. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/12865 [ Access provided at 1 Oct 2021 16:31 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Anna Seward and the End of the Eighteenth Century This page intentionally left blank Anna Seward and the End of the Eighteenth Century • claudia thomas kairoff The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2012 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kairoff, Claudia Thomas. Anna Seward and the end of the eighteenth century / Claudia Thomas Kairoff. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-0328-1 (acid-free paper) ISBN-10: 1-4214-0328-5 (acid-free paper) 1. Seward, Anna, 1742–1809—Criticism and interpretation. 2. England—Intellectual life—18th century. I. Title. PR3671.S7Z74 2012 821′.6—dc22 2011019914 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. “Anna Seward and the Sonnet: Milton’s Champion” was originally published in Aphra Behn Online 1 (2011) and is reprinted here with permission of the editors.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhe JERVIS, PORTER and OTHER ALLIED FAMILIES
    JOHNSONIAN GLEANINGS BY ALEYN LYELL READE HON. M.A. OXON. PART VII rhe JERVIS, PORTER and OTHER ALLIED FAMILIES PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY PERCY LUND, HUMPHRIES & CO. LTD. 12 BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.1 MCMXXXV PREFACE HIS ''Part" of the Gleanings is really only a kind of genealogical appendix to Part VI., and will be corres­ Tpondingly dull for most people. But its contents are essential to the large scheme on which I am working, and there are items of interest for those with patience to seek them. To what an extent "the complicated interactions of kinship," particu­ larly through his wife, impinged upon Johnson's own career at various points is well shown by the key pedigree which acts as a kind of frontispiece. If the volume itself is not stimulating to many, I hope that the novel map contained in the pocket at the end, and described in a special note, may prove of general interest. So far as I know, nothing like it has ever been attempted before to illustrate the origins and life, or part of the life, of any celebrated man. At present I cannot say whether Part VIII. will continue with the story of Johnson's career after his returning to London in r740, or whether a Part will have to be interposed containing various fresh matter bearing upon his early life that has cropped up during the progress of the work. In conclusion, it is a great pleasure to thank all those who have so generously helped me in the compilation of this Part, chief among whom, as so often before, is Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Beddoes, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Marcet Bridget E
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Gendering Scientific Discourse from 1790-1830: Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Beddoes, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Marcet Bridget E. Kapler Marquette University Recommended Citation Kapler, Bridget E., "Gendering Scientific Discourse from 1790-1830: Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Beddoes, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Marcet" (2016). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 652. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/652 GENDERING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE FROM 1790-1830: ERASMUS DARWIN, THOMAS BEDDOES, MARIA EDGEWORTH, AND JANE MARCET by Bridget E. Kapler, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2016 ii ABSTRACT GENDERING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE FROM 1790-1830: ERASMUS DARWIN, THOMAS BEDDOES, MARIA EDGEWORTH, AND JANE MARCET Bridget E. Kapler, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2016 This dissertation project operates on the belief that the democratic, everyday pursuits of science were at least as significant scientifically, and perhaps even more important culturally, as the elite, highly speculative work done by the gentlemen scientists of the Romantic Age (1790-1830). It focuses upon the literary works, careers, and discourse of Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Beddoes, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Marcet, tracing the role that gender played in assigning recognition and authority in the scientific community. Operating in a public sphere that favored the scientific discoveries of male gentlemen scientists, boundary crossing had to occur decisively, but quietly through a method of subversion and containment. Women had to enter the scientific conversation through traditionally unscientific genres and anonymous or apologetic prefaces, which usually conveyed intent to share science with other women.
    [Show full text]
  • Close Encounters: Anna Seward, 1742–1809, a Woman in Provincial Cultural Life
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: ANNA SEWARD, 1742–1809, A WOMAN IN PROVINCIAL CULTURAL LIFE by MARION ROBERTS A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of MASTER OF LETTERS School of Humanities College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham December 2010 ABSTRACT Anna Seward (1747–1809) is best known today as a poet, but one whose reputation did not survive her death. Most studies of Seward since the nineteenth century have been critical or dismissive, but in recent years her published work has attracted more attention. Academics, particularly feminist scholars, have focused on her environmental observations, and the ways in which her writings draw attention to the gendered nature of eighteenth-century society. This study adopts a different approach by exploring Anna Seward’s private and public life within the provincial culture in which she emerged and remained until her death. Seward’s identity was shaped by her early life in the Derbyshire Peak District and the cathedral city of Lichfield. Her relationships with male mentors and friends of both sexes provided learning experiences and opportunities to develop her literary skills and personal confidence. Her wealthy clergyman father educated her at home and developed her literary interests. She was also heavily influenced by Dr Erasmus Darwin who encouraged her literary abilities and developed her confidence. Influenced by other provincial literary figures, such as Thomas Whalley, William Hayley, Robert Southey, Helen Maria Williams, Hannah More and the Ladies of Llangollen, she embarked on a publishing career, became a commentator on public affairs and acted as a critic.
    [Show full text]
  • Natural History and British Women Writers, 1730-1830 By
    NATURAL HISTORY AND BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS, 1730-1830 BY MELISSA R. BAILES DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Ted Underwood, Chair Professor Robert Markley Professor Gillen Wood Assistant Professor Justine Murison ii Abstract The late eighteenth-century poet, Maria Riddell, used zoological hybridity as a racial metaphor for West Indian colonies’ potential to foster “British” national identity, with its mixed heritage and allegiances. This is the subject of my dissertation’s second chapter, and what it shows is that, at a time when women writers did not possess political power, some, such as Riddell, exerted cultural authority through the natural sciences. Natural history (comprising the fields of botany, zoology, and geology) dramatically rose in popularity in the latter half of the eighteenth century. During this time, naturalists drew analogies between natural and social orders, arranging “classes” and “kingdoms” in ways that naturalized cultural and national hierarchies. My manuscript, Natural History and British Women Writers, 1730-1830, argues that women, including Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Smith, and Mary Shelley, often claimed scientific superiority to naturalists to destabilize seemingly fixed identities and revise not only biological but also social and literary taxonomies. For example, my third chapter explores Anna Seward’s development of a literary taxonomy that interrelates biological and poetic forms. Through this attention to women’s scientific literature, my study also casts new light on the period’s debates about literary originality, with important consequences for our understanding of writers such as Alexander Pope, Oliver Goldsmith, William Wordsworth, and Lord Byron.
    [Show full text]